“Hey, Devin,” Sabine said with a smile. She was dressed in a pair of pink shorts and a white tank top with a matching pink stripe across the shoulders. She wore her curly black hair pulled back from her face in a ponytail, and her face looked like she was born for modeling, with smooth brown skin without a pimple in sight and long eyelashes.

I suddenly felt self-conscious. I’d never given much thought about how I looked. I liked the way the sun streaked my brown hair with gold. But of course there were things I didn’t love. I always wore sunscreen, so my skin stayed pretty pale and never got tan, like some people’s did. And I didn’t have acne, but my cheeks sometimes got blotchy. I knew my friends wouldn’t judge me, so I never worried before, but these photos would be seen by tons of people. Now all that stuff felt like it mattered.

Why did they ask me to model? Are they crazy? I thought. Next to Sabine, I look like a modeling school dropout or something. My palms started to sweat.

“See you out there,” Sabine said, and I nodded silently and followed Ashanta, wiping my hands on my jeans.

We entered a room filled with racks of clothes and a table with a makeup mirror, a bunch of hairstyling stuff, and a makeup case that looked like the tackle box my dad uses when he goes fishing. But instead of fake worms, hooks, and lures, it was filled with makeup brushes, eyeshadow, and lipstick. A purple-haired young woman in cutoff jean shorts, vintage basketball sneakers, and a T-shirt with a rock band logo on it was looking through the clothes on the rack.

“Devin, this is Tenshi,” Ashanta said. “She’s going to get you ready for the shoot. I’m going to leave you to it.”

“Hi,” I said shyly as Ashanta hurried off.

Tenshi nodded to me. “Sabine’s in green, so I’m thinking blue for you,” she said. Then she laughed. “Hey, I rhymed!”

“Yeah, you did,” I said, but I let out a nervous breath instead of a laugh.

“I heard it’s your first shoot,” Tenshi said, and I nodded. “Don’t worry. Zane, the photographer, is really chill. And Sabine’s a pro. Just follow her lead.”

I nodded silently again. Things were starting to feel overwhelming. I thought about bolting into the parking lot—I knew that Mom would follow me—but then Tenshi pulled out shorts and a cute shirt for me that were the exact shade of Kicks blue.